


How to Sing in the Rain

by Hecate



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-15 19:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21258191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hecate/pseuds/Hecate
Summary: “Your sister decided we should come by for Halloween. Drag you out of the apartment, roam the streets or something,” Faith tells her.





	How to Sing in the Rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celaenos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celaenos/gifts).

Faith walks back into her life with a limp and a cut through her lip splitting her smirk. Dawn is standing behind her. There is a bruise on her sister's face, a cast around her leg.

“Your sister decided we should come by for Halloween. Drag you out of the apartment, roam the streets or something,” Faith tells her.

Buffy doesn't answer, her eyes still on the cast, something inside of her focused on its stark white color, on the dark scribble somebody left on it, chaotic loops she can't read.

“Ah, yeah,” Faith says, still smirking. “Funny thing happened during the last Slayer gig.”

Buffy feels almost proud of not punching her.

~*~

It's strange to see Dawn in her apartment, her sister looking around, looking like a visitor. Almost a stranger with her new haircut and a coat Buffy has never seen her wearing, standing next to Faith, easy and relaxed. She hadn't even mentioned that she was working with Faith the last time they talked on the phone.

“Are you okay?” Buffy asks her.

“Sure,” Dawn replies, smiling at her. “Five by five.”

There's a sharp tug inside of Buffy at the words, an old anger, and it's hard to force an answering smile onto her face, harder still when Faith laughs. 

“Okay,” Buffy says, and she covers her anger with another smile. Asks, “Drinks? Food?” and it's awkward, it's strange, and Faith is looking at her oddly.

“Sure, B. Feed us.”

It's a relief to walk away from them.

~*~

There had been this Halloween that didn't happen, at least not in the way Buffy remembers it now, after Faith first came to Sunnydale. When Faith was in a coma, and Dawn wasn't there yet but was.

Buffy was still so angry with Faith, angry because of her betrayal and the fights and Angel. Dawn was angry with Faith, too, but for different reasons. Faith had been the cool older sister she never had, and when she went rogue, went bad, Dawn lost that. Still, Dawn dressed up like Faith for Halloween, the clothes looking ridiculous on her. 

Buffy didn't understand back then, still doesn't understand now. And with Dawn and Faith in her living room, with Dawn in a grown-up body and grown-up clothes, Buffy remembers that Halloween.

~*~

During dinner, Dawn steals Faith's beer. It's casual, practiced, and Faith is laughing while she curses her out. Steals some of her dessert in turn and laughs again when Dawn glares at her.

“Sweet revenge,” she sing-songs, and Dawn groans. And Buffy thinks that maybe she still doesn't like Faith, will never like Faith. Because she is laughing with Dawn, and Dawn hardly ever calls Buffy, always busy, always researching one thing or another or preparing a mission.

Because with Dawn, Faith couldn't be lonely.

And Buffy kinda is.

~*~

Dawn goes to bed early, yawning and waving at them carelessly.

Leaving Buffy alone with Faith.

She hasn't been alone with her for a very long time.

There was all this planning after the First, after Willow called all the Slayers into being. It was never the right time. And maybe Buffy hadn't tried very hard.

And even now, she just doesn't know what to say to Faith.

Maybe they can be silent together. They never tried that.

“Are you dating my sister?” Buffy asks, and Faith spits out her beer, coughs until tears run down her face.

“What? God, no.” Faith wipes a hand across her face, looking at Buffy with confusion. With amusement, too. “What makes you think that?”

Buffy shrugs, looks away from Faith. “You seem... close.”

“Yeah, well, we work together a lot. You know how it is. Slaying is... well, you don't do that with people you don't like.”

“Yeah,” Buffy agrees. “And it makes you hungry and horny.”

A snort, Faith standing up and walking over to Buffy, sitting down next to her. Patting her leg. “But not for your sister.”

Faith winks at her, grins, and Buffy looks away, looks at the TV that's still running, and she doesn't say anything.

~*~

Dawn forces them all to go shopping the next day, dragging them from store to store, a determined look on her face.

“One of you needs to dress up as a vampire,” she decides while they stop at a coffee shop, grinning at them.

“Not it,” Faith replies, words fast, hands thrown up. “I'll be a princess. With a tiara. And big hair.”

Dawn looks at Buffy then, eyes opened wide, a mockery of innocence. And Buffy groans and nods and tells her sister that she hates her.

~*~

They go dancing, Dawn and Faith and Buffy, and she hasn't done this for the longest time. First there wasn't time, and then there was nobody to dance with. Willow was too busy helping Giles with the new Slayers, pulling Dawn along with her. Xander was grieving for Anya and rebuilding his life. And then Willow went to London for the Council, and Xander started a business and had to travel, and Buffy got stuck in another hellhole town.

Buffy never thought her life would be like this.

She always thought she would die before they all started to live different lives. But she didn't, she is the oldest Slayer ever, and she hasn't danced for a while.

But she finds her rhythm, she finds it with Faith, the music running through her, the beats the echo of her heart. For a moment, she's free, and she is young. For a moment, she is on a familiar dance floor in Sunnydale, the Bronze welcoming her back, and Faith hasn't killed anyone yet. And Buffy is one of two Slayers.

She wants to stay like that.

But she can't.

She turns away from Faith and Dawn; she turns away and she pushes through the people surrounding them, pushes and shoves, and there are shouts behind her and a familiar voice calling her name. But she doesn't listen.

The night air hits her like a vampire's punch, solid and hard, and she tumbles backwards, hits the club's wall. Stays there and breathes. Doesn't look at Dawn when her sister finds her, doesn't say anything when Dawn takes her hand and they walk away from the club and the people and the music, Faith trailing along after them.

~*~

Faith is in Buffy's bathroom, standing in front of the mirror, wiping off her make-up. And Buffy is leaning against the door, watching her.

“Sorry about earlier,” she says.

Faith looks at the mirror, looks at herself and at Buffy, the two of them captured together. And, looking at the same image, Buffy thinks that she has no picture of her and Faith, thinks that's strange that there isn't one. They are the original ones, after all, the only ones left after Kendra died and all the new Slayers got called. And Buffy knows that she is probably drunk, and she's definitely becoming maudlin, and she tries to shake it off.

“About leaving early. You could have stayed,” she finally goes on.

“Nah,” Faith says. “Wouldn't have been fun without you.”

~*~

In the morning, nobody talks about the club and Buffy freaking out; Buffy standing in front of the coffee machine and coaxing it to life, Faith in front of the toaster, trying to pull out the bread without burning her fingertips. Dawn sits at the table, drinking coffee, muttering to herself about her headache.

Nobody talks, and Buffy feels settled, feels solid in a way she hasn't for a while.

But Dawn will leave again. And with her, Faith.

~*~

Faith and she are patrolling together, an old routine pulled from the past and made new. But Buffy doesn't want to fall back into rhythm with Faith again, doesn't want rewind time. It went badly the first time around, and she won't be able to keep it anyway.

But still, they patrol together, and they dust a few vampires. And Faith is talking and talking and talking just like she used to years ago, stories about slaying and sex and parties and random things.

And then: “Dawn worries about you.”

Buffy stops walking, turns to Faith. “What?”

“She worries. She thinks that you...” A pause, Faith looking away for a moment before turning back to Buffy, her eyes focused, unwavering. “Are you okay, B?”

And Buffy breathes in, breathes out, swallows around the sudden dryness that fills up her mouth, that spreads down her throat and to her heart. “Sure.” And she manages a thin smile, and she starts walking again, and they don't talk until they're home and Dawn greets them with pizza and beer.

~*~

It's Halloween, and Buffy is a vampire.

Faith is wearing baby blue and a crown and the biggest smile Buffy has ever seen on her. Dawn is a frog. The town is crowded with laughing monsters and cheering kids.

Dawn is skipping around Faith and her, singing a pop song Buffy is pretty sure hasn't been popular for years now. And Faith is laughing at Dawn, is laughing at Buffy, and Buffy reaches out for her, pulls her in for a hug, and Faith lets her.

And Buffy might be drunk, might be happy, and the night doesn't last long enough.

~*~

Dawn drags her to a park in the afternoon, the autumn sun bright on her face, her hand warm in Buffy's. There is a coffee stand and there are hot dogs and it's all very normal, all very unfamiliar, and Buffy follows Dawn because she hasn't done this for a while either.

“I'm worried about you,” Dawn says, echoing Faith' words.

Buffy thinks about walking away then, thinks of lying. But this is Dawn, this is her little magic sister, and Buffy killed herself for her.

“I know,” she says, and she takes a gulp of too-hot coffee, curses when it burns her mouth. “This coffee is shit.”

A snort, Dawn smiling briefly. “You'll survive.”

“Yeah,” Buffy says. “It's what I do.”

Dawn frowns, says, “I'm sorry I wasn't here. I should have been. But... I had plans and Giles needed me. And then Willow needed me and then... I don't know. There was always a reason.”

“Don't,” Buffy says. “This is not... I'm the big sister. I'm the one that takes care of you.”

And Dawn reaches out then, her hand against Buffy's shoulder, and it's warm, it's real. It's her little sister standing with her in some park with the sun shining and Buffy not being the only Slayer in the world by a long shot. She tends to forget that.

“I can take care of you a little, too, you know. And Faith wants to stay anyway. She thinks the new Slayers are losers.” A quick grin, her hand squeezing Buffy's shoulder. “And she still has a crush on you.”

Buffy breathes in.

Thinks of dancing with Faith.

Thinks of Dawn and her frog costume.

Thinks of being the only one looking out for this city, this hellhole.

Says, “Okay.”

~*~

So Dawn stays.

And with her, Faith.


End file.
